As promised by Elon Musk, X has now rolled out two new tiers to its X Premium subscription offering as it continues to push people to pay to use the app.

The two new tiers - "Premium+", at $US16 a month, offers an ad-free X experience, and "Premium Basic", at $US3 a month, providing some of its extra features - will complement the existing X Premium package.

First off: the cheaper subscription pitch from X on Premium Basic. Sure, the Basic option does come with some additional add-on features - post editing, longer posts, encrypted DMs among them.
It doesn't, of course get you a blue checkmark, but it does give you a "small reply boost", so your posts in the app are more likely to be seen.

Although what "small" refers to here is not quite clear. And plain, X doesn't really know yet either:

"No, users on X will now see a small preference for replies from verified accounts over other replies. We are currently testing the levels at which we prioritize content from Premium subscribers relative to the other factors we consider in conversation rankings."

So it’s probably relative to how many users sign up, and how much that then influences the level of boost that X can give posts from paying users. But at this point, Basic subscribers will get a limited boost.

Which is better than nothing, but I’m not sure that it’s a great incentive.

Second, and maybe something of a more qualitative nature, is the fact that Basic users don't get a blue checkmark. Not using this feature seems like an open missed opportunity. It's the case because nearly all incentives for add-ons for Basic are rather for people who post in the app, but 80% of X users never post. These options are unlikely to be a big apple, even for $US3 per month, whereas a blue tick might drive more sign-ups, at least in theory.

But then again, the checkmark now only shows that you’re a paying user, not a high-profile person, so maybe that’s not a big lure either.

Also, Basic users are not eligible for X’s ad revenue share program.

The “X Premium+” tier, meanwhile, includes all of the X Premium incentives, including the biggest new addition, in the removal of ads from your experience.
The $US16 fee ideally should have covered loss X incurs by reducing ad exposure where prior insights highlighted that X generates about $US12 per user, per month purely based on ad exposure. So it must have had to charge at least that and then factor in variances in ad taking in.
The removal of ads would be of high value to at least some users, even though the value of avoiding ads vs. paying $US168 per year (X's discounted annual package) to use X is probably not a viable calculation for most.

But there are other benefits.

As you can see from the chart above, Premium+ subscribers receive all subscriber benefits but also gain the biggest reply boost, relative again to the overall take-up. But really, you maximise your chances of your posts being seen, and you avoid ads.

Perhaps that will appeal to brands, which don't want to pay for X ads, though that could also see X's reply streams filled with spammy promos and vague responses linked to viral posts.

Overall, it seems fairly pricey for an ad-free experience, which most people are already used to, so I’m not sure that it’s going to be a big seller. But the new offerings do provide alternatives, which should see at least some additional users subscribing to the app.

This is X’s latest push to boost subscription intake, which Elon believes is a key avenue to solving some of X’s biggest challenges.

Getting more users paying for the app, which at least in theory will serve as a disincentive to bot farms, since as more users subscribe, that then better highlights the bot profiles in-stream, as they'll be the non-paying, non-checkmark accounts. Although the new Basic package does not give you a checkmark either, so it won't be effective in that regard.

Boosts also mean that bot accounts, which can't pay (as it requires a mobile number and credit card for each) will get less reach, which could, again in theory, make it harder for bot peddlers to gain traction in the app.

Different cybersecurity experts don't think that this approach will work, but again, you can see the intended value of the push from that perspective.

More paying subscribers also gives X another revenue stream, so it becomes less dependent on ad dollars, and hence, less susceptible to the caprices of ad partners, which would better allow Elon's approach more aligned with free speech.

And finally, the dismantling of the old verification process gave Elon an opportunity to draw back against some profiles that he, personally, has grievances with. This may have been the most damaging element: by removing legacy checkmarks, Elon also de-valued the reputational boost aspect of the blue tick, but it does now enable him to, say, remove the blue tick from The New York Times' account if he doesn't like what they report.

The implication of the final point is that there is a basic flaw in Musk's entire plan for the app, which is that his moves tend to be guided by ideology and personal viewpoint rather than by what is good for the business. Musk now quite often speaks out on contentious issues, and those tendencies are also very clearly defining X policy.

Some might argue past managements of Twitter exercised their own ideology, but much of that was based on advice from authorities and official information providers. Musk increasingly is turning to less-than-reputable sources, aligning X policies with such. And that puts the app in uncomfortable territory, at least for advertisers.

However, Elon does seem intent on following through with his original plan to manage the app even as less than 0.5% of users have signed up thus far to pay for X Premium.

Will that change now that X has lower-priced tiers? Will X's other payments experiment, in charging all new accounts a $1 fee if they want to engage in the app, actually see more money flowing into X's coffers?

I have my doubts on both, but time will tell.